Episode 1585 Talkback - Spotlight on Star Wars Comics in the First Marvel Era
Adam_Murdough
Posts: 506
A long time ago in a comics industry far, far away, the biggest comics publisher in the galaxy was saved from financial ruin by an unlikely hero: a scrappy little series based on a surprise blockbuster film called STAR WARS. Now, as Star Wars mania seizes the world anew, one-man Jedi holocron Chris Eberle and the other CGS Geeks revisit that series, the first Star Wars comics ever produced. Thrill to the surprising true story of how the original Marvel Star Wars comic of the '70s and '80s found its way to print, then stay tuned for a few select highlights from the comic itself. (1:27:05)
Listen here, your worshipfulness!
Listen here, your worshipfulness!
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By the way, those great NPR radio dramas can all be found online, naturally. Here's a playlist of the trilogy.
Oh yes, and here is how Jabba the Hutt was portrayed in the original adaptation. I think @Adam_Murdough was correct that he bore a resemblance to a random character seen around Mos Eisley
I posted this in the Marvel's Star Wars comics thread in the main forum, mistakenly reading the title as discussing this era of Marvel's Star Wars rather than the latest books.
chris
I used to cut out the Goodwin/Williamson Star Wars newspaper strip every day, and I liked it better than the comics (which was part of the reason I wasn't scouring spinner racks for the comic book). I picked up the Dark Horse Classic Star Wars reprints of the strips when they published them in three trade paperbacks starting in 1994.
Before Chaykin’s Dominic Fortune and Monark Starstalker, Chaykin created Cody Starbuck in Star*Reach #1 (Apr. 1974). They're all basically the same character. And he'd drawn “Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser” and “Ironwolf” stories for DC and “Killraven” stories for Marvel before that, so he was well versed in fantasy/sci-fi before getting the Star Wars gig.
Re: Carmine Infantino drawing Star Wars, he never bothered staying on model—he was consistent, but not on model. He drew it his way, and Terry Austin would redraw things in the inks as needed. But Carmine was only doing breakdowns instead of full pencils for most of his run.
As for me, personally I think I got the first six issues, read them, enjoyed them, but didn't see the movie at all until 1979. I think the only reason I got them was that I, too had liked Sword & Sorcery and Iron Wolf, so I was perhaps only following Chaykin's work?
After the first six issues, I just got the occasional issue until I joined the military. I feel it's kind of interesting that people would say Star Wars saved Marvel. Wasn't X-Men also starting to do gangbusters at that time? Looking at the timeline, the Clarement and Cockrum run coincides with the Star Wars movie and I don't think the Star Wars comics were doing that well at the time. Then Byrne starts doing the artwork at the end of '77 and the X-Men really take off.
Even within those awesome following issues, X-Men didn't become a comic of passionate interest to devoted readers until around issue #125 (Phoenix Returns) or so. By then the comic's content began ramping up into a sustained action-adventure narrative. At the same time, X-Men back-issues began to receive attention. It was hard for kids to ignore that X-Men #94, a comic they may have purchased just three or four years earlier, was selling for $15-$20. While the title picked up adherents throughout that seminal run, it wasn't until the last two years of work by the Claremont/Byrne team that the title began to be widely recognized as something special. This was two years after the Star Wars comics had launched,
Perhaps with the overwhelming popularity of the Star Wars comics brought more discerning readers into the comics hobby, around the same time the X-Men was beginning to hit its stride, and Star Wars comics became a gateway to other Marvel books, such as these, thus leading to an awakening to the X-Men title which was noticed, acknowledged, and eventually appreciated and revered for the seminal run that it became? Just a theory. But I would submit that Star Wars saved Marvel, while the X-Men certainly helped sustain Marvel.
Star Wars #40 was the first comic I remember owning at age 5 or 6, purchased when my mother had a horseback riding accident and we were at the hospital with hours to wait between some visiting. (Not a serious injury, FWIW for anyone curious- she was fine.)
It was part 2 of the Empire Strikes Back adaptation, with AT-ATs on the cover. Awesome issue to get me started. I have it digitally but I haven't seen the issue available in back issue bins over the years much at all and if I have- it hasn't been "priced to move" for me. I'd like to have a copy again, but only for a reasonable price and if it's not in the cards, my digital copy and memories are enough.
As Chris mentioned- it's a cool series, I read issues here and there after that of that original Marvel series as a kid. Obviously I love the original trilogy of films, but I never read any of the DH stuff or novels.
And I want to make sure I heard this correctly. But Lucas didn't care for Jaxson the Rabbit? He didn't care for a long eared alien meant to provide comic relief? Hmmmmmm
I used to go to Supersnipe while in High School, and recall picking up the first 2 (or 3? I think 2) issues of the Star Wars comic off the racks there and then learning it was going to be made into a movie. So I went into the movie theatre to see "Star Wars" on opening day having already read 2/6 of the story in comic form (I think that took us to the exit from Tatooine), and then buying the last 4 issues of the adaptation in the following months as it came out.
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The first issue of Return of the Jedi was the first comic I ever remember having. Much like has been mentioned on the show, I read that comic several times until it was a shell of its former self. Obviously Star Wars is a huge influence in my life, so the Marvel run played into that. I have the omnibus editions from both Dark Horse and Marvel. I also recently got those recolorings done by Marvel recently of the original movie adaptations. And of course I have the Star Wars artifact edition that came out recently along with pre-ordering the Al Williamson artist edition. So, needless to say, I'm a big fan of this stuff....even at SuperShow years ago when you had Walt and Louise Simonson there, I had them sign a Star Wars issue they both worked on before they were married.
Loved all of the info and perspectives you gave on this series. If you guys ever want to do a Dark Horse Star Wars episode like you mentioned, let me know. I would love to participate in that, or at the very least, I would be happy to do all of the research and material for you guys to work if of to do the show. It would be my honor to put the hours into that to hear you guys do that episode. I currently own everything Dark Horse released in one form or another (whether in single issues it trades....currently working on getting everything I have only in trade format into the single issue version). I have read them all. Also loved how those comics would tie into the books being produced at the time (yep, have all of those also...have not read all of those yet though). Let me know if you'd like the help with an episode like that.
I have that amazing Adventures of Luke Skywalker collection that Chris talked about. It's a beautiful book, and I have had a few creators sign the inside cover that worked on stories featured in there.
It was a "filler" issue, which was made to fill in a gap in an emergency, and they used it for the month before the ESB adaptation started. It's a done-in-one, written by Archie Goodwin, with art by Michael Golden and Terry Austin! It is a work of art. To this point, no one had really brought the tie fighters, lightsaber battles, etc. to life like this. Seek it out.